


Sticks and Stones

by Morgana



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-31
Updated: 2013-05-31
Packaged: 2017-12-13 13:15:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/824712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morgana/pseuds/Morgana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They've always used words as weapons</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sticks and Stones

They've always used words against each other. From the first time they met, when he refused to tell her who he was, but promised to kill her just the same, to now, they've lashed out at each other, throwing stinging barbs along with punches, exchanging insults along with blows. They know each other's weak spots, know right where to hit so it hurts the most, whether it's his sneered speculations on her lack of sexual prowess, or her pointed digs about his ex-lover's infidelities, and they tear at each other with a snarling viciousness that fills the air with a crackling sort of electric thrill.  
  
Buffy never imagined that she'd want to hurt someone the way she does him, never thought she'd find herself smiling when someone flinched away from her sharp tongue, but she can't deny the enjoyment she finds in the power. And he seems to understand it, even encourages it by goading her on, and although sometimes she sees his eyes darken when a particular taunt hits home, he never lets on that she's really hurt him, just fires back with a cutting jibe of his own. The Initiative took his fangs, but they hadn't been able to touch his snark. Every single one of them has felt the sting of his remarks, but where Willow turns wounded eyes on him, and Tara dissolves into stammers and blushes, Buffy slings it right back at him, matching him insult for insult, and he seems to respect her for dishing it out instead of backing down.  
  
It's strange, really, how similar they are. She'd never dream of admitting it to him, but she actually looks forward to their sarcastic battles. He keeps her on her toes, makes her think fast so she can keep up, and more than one dull patrol had been enlivened with his snappy comebacks. It had almost become a game between them, a contest to see who could strike the deepest, but they'd never really tried to destroy each other - at least, not until she'd come back.  
  
For all their put-downs, slurs, and hard-hitting invective, they'd always held back, as though too aware of the real damage they could do, but after her resurrection, she hadn't been able to stop herself. That little piece of herself that had enjoyed their verbal sparring seemed to have gotten bigger with her death, and nothing but his heart's blood would appease it. She'd watched his eyes go from dark to utterly stricken when she lashed out at him, and the more pain that filled them, the harder she pushed. She whittled away at him, using words to torture him in the worst ways she could think of, belittling and defaming him at every turn, trying to drive him off like she'd driven all the others away, but still he stayed.  
  
It had been fitting that their first time together came amid a flurry of hard words and harder blows, fists joining the verbal dance they'd been doing for years, and she'd used that to push him away every time he tried to get close afterwards, twisting his words of affection and flinging them in his face with her own stinging rejection, always waiting for the day when he finally decided he'd had enough and left. But he never did, and it got harder and harder to watch him wither under her scorn, more and more difficult to summon the angry slams that would keep the proper distance between them. She'd finally decided that it had to end, had even gone to his crypt to make sure it was finally over, only to have him look at her and say quietly, "Still love you, pet. Always will, no matter what happens between us."  
  
They've spent years throwing their cruelest barbs at each other, so how was it that something so simple could finally break her and leave her crying in his arms?


End file.
